In This Life
by urbandaily
Summary: "A regular Juliet; always falling for the wrong man. Look at what it's gotten you into now." A string of disconnected moments that flicker through Annie's subconscious at the end of "Glass Spider". Spoilers for last night's episode.


_Spoilers for 3x08, "Glass Spider"._

* * *

"You look like such a cliché, Lena!" Annie wants to say. The slight woman is dressed all in black leather from the neck down, and it makes Annie want to laugh. The situation has suddenly become a cheap espionage flick.

She sees Lena's gun from the start, but it takes her entirely too much time to realize that the other woman is aiming at them. And by then, Lena has already put two in Simon, and two in her.

She isn't laughing now.

* * *

_Hey Danielle. Can you call me back tonight if you get the chance? __. . . Give my love to the girls __. . . I miss you._

"Oh, _Annie_."

Annie opens her eyes. Everything hurts. Everything's just a little too bright, too bland.

"Danielle?" She rasps. She can talk. She can breathe. She thinks she's still lying on the floor of the kitchen.

"Yeah, honey." A warm hand strokes her hair. "Oh, God."

"I'm so sorry . . ." She's not quite sure what she's apologizing for. Everything, maybe.

"A regular Juliet. Falling for the wrong man." Annie can almost hear her sister smiling. "Look what it's gotten you into." Danielle says, mostly affectionately. "Have you learned your lesson?"

That was a mean thing for her to say.

* * *

"_Do you love Simon?"_

"_Auggie . . ."_

"_Do you love him?"_

I'm in so deep, she wants to tell him. Too deep.

* * *

"I would have lived for you." Annie hears. She turns.

Simon stands some feet away, hands in his pockets, two ever large crimson stains blossoming across his chest. She looks down. She has two to match.

"I wanted to live for you." He says. She remembers him saying that when they'd both been alive.

"I . . . would have followed you anywhere." She tells him honestly, and though it wasn't then, Annie thinks it could be the truth this time around.

His lips quirk. He knew what she was going to tell him before Lena had come, and that wasn't it. "I guess you have." He says, though. "You died for me. And I died for you." _Are we _really_ dead?_

"You're a romantic."

"You're a cynic." He watches her. He shrugs. "I'd do it again." He tells her simply, but the weight of those words makes tears spring to her eyes. She gives him a watery smile.

"Some people get matching tattoos," she remarks. "We get matching bullets."

Simon chuckles. "Well if that isn't love, I don't know what is."

* * *

It's when she begins to have trouble breathing that Joan is there, sitting by her side.

"I know it hurts, but you have to push through it." She says soothingly, and Annie can ground herself in those words. It sounds a bit like a command. Most things the other woman says sound that way.

Annie asks, "Is – that an – order?" She grins despite the fact that she's speaking through shallow puffs of air, rattled and choking. Her chest rises and falls erratically, and her shirt is saturated and sticking to her skin.

"You have a bad habit of disobeying my orders – so no." Joan replies, amused. But she sobers up quickly. "Think of it as a favor to me." She says.

"Lena . . ."

"I know."

"I didn't. I - thought . . ." Annie takes a shuddering breath, suddenly ashamed. "Trusted her."

". . . I know you did, Annie." Joan leans forward and pulls aside the shoulder of her dress.

Under the edge of her collarbone, Annie can see the shape of a perfectly white, perfectly round little scar. Somehow, Annie knows that Lena put that there, all those years ago.

Joan sits back, covering it up again. The empathy flickers across her face. "I know it hurts." She repeats.

And this time, Annie knows she isn't just talking about the physical pain.

* * *

"Tell Danielle and the girls that I love them so, so much, and tell Joan and Arthur that I'm sorry for the mess, and tell Lena . . . tell her that she was wrong." Annie looks up, not even sure who she's talking to.

But Auggie's there, just the way he's always been there. He listens. Both of her hands rest in his.

"Don't let her ruin me, Auggie."

They sit there for awhile; silence settles around them.

"And for me?" He says finally, eyes staring straight ahead. "Do you have anything to tell me?"

Annie turns. She raises a hand to cup his face, and tears threaten again. Her Auggie. She doesn't know what she ever would have done without him.

"I adore you, Auggie." She whispers. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"But you'll see me again. " He promises, reaching up to squeeze her hand. "You'll see Danielle again. The girls. And Joan and Arthur – you're gonna be in a hell of a lot of trouble," he says, and she laughs. He tells her seriously, "You're going to wake up, Annie. You will."

She smiles gratefully, knowing that he can sense it, even if he can't see it. "And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime," He says, lowering himself next to her, "I'll sit here and keep you company."

"Don't leave me here alone. If Lena comes back to finish what she started . . ." Even in her subconscious, she doesn't feel entirely safe.

Auggie merely squeezes her hand. "Never."

* * *

**Fin**.

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